Page 208 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

PREFACE 7
meet with himself, the subject itslf is sure to be benefited. ,,
Working under such disadvantages, I was, therefore, glad, when
on turning the pages of the first voluine of the tenth edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, recently received, I found that
Prof. Geikie, in his article on geology, took the same view of Dr·
Croll's calculations, as summarised' at the end of the second chapter
of this book. After stating that Croll's doctrine did not make way
amongst physicists and astronomers, the eminent geologist says
that more recently ( 1895) it has been critically examined by
Mr. E. P. Culverwell, who regards it as " a vague speculation,
clothed indeed with delusive semblance of severe numerical
accuracy, but having no foundation in physical fact, and built
up of parts which do not dovetail one into the other. If
Dr. Croll's calculations are disposed of in this way, there remains
nothing to prevent us from accepting the view of the American
geologists that the commencement of the post-Glacial period
cannot be placed at a date earlier than 8000 B. C
It has been already stated that the beginnings of Aryan
civilisation must be supposed to date back several thousand
years before the oldest Vedic period; and when the commen-
cement of the post-Glacial epoch is brought down to 8000 B. C,
it is not at all surprising if the date of primitive Aryan life is
found to-go back to it from 4500 B. C., the age of the oldest
Vedic period. In fact, it is the main point sought to be established
in the present volume. There are many passages in the :{{ig-Veda,
which, though hitherto looked upon as obscure and unintelligi-
ble, do, when interpreted in the light of recent scientific researches,
plainly disclose the Polar attributes of the Ve~ic deities, or the
traces of an ancient Arctic calendar; while the Avesta expressly
tells us that the happy land of Airyana Va~jo, or the Aryan
Paradise, was located in a region where the sun shone but once
-a year, and that it was destroyed by the invasion of snow and ice,
which tendered its climate inclement and necessitated a migration
southward. These are plain and simple statements, and when we
put them side by side with what we know of the Glacial and the
post-Glacial epoch from the latest geological researches, we cannot
avoid the conclusion that the primitive Aryan home was both
Arctic and inter-Glacial. I have often asked myself, why the real
bearing of these pl~in and simple statements should have so long
remained undiscovered; and let me assure the reader that it was